under another sun

Up early and made tea, then after doing a few chores, and noting with irritation the damage the foxes have already done to our new patio Lorraine and I went out for the day in Brighton. One of those perfect Brighton days, the centre busy and full all kinds of music from varieties of buskers. We wandered about happily doing some shopping. I popped into the second hand book store where I found a bilingual edition of selected poems by Victor Hugo, including one or two he wrote in Guernsey, one poem Open Windows: Early Morning he talks about all the sounds he can hear, including the bells of the Town church. Did some shopping, Lorraine looking in shops for fabric, and an earring tree to solve the morning problem of hard-to-find earrings. We paused for coffee at the Marwood Coffee House, more shopping, then popped into The Basketmakers for a bite to eat and a pint at five. Then at six we went to the Kommedia to see the final cut of Blade Runner on a big screen. Just fabulous: a visual ...

An excellent morning's work, with a clear head and song on my lips. Went out for a constitutional in the afternoon, walking around town. It was pretty cold, especially down by the sea but nevertheless bracing. Walked through the tiny Dolphin Square in the Lanes where the much missed Rounder Records used to be. Melancholy sight with Rounder Records and three other shops gone. As I took a few snaps a man from a jewellers peered out of his shop window balefully at me. A 'fasting' i.e. reduced calorie day, but again not much of a hardship: small porridge for breakfast, banana on Ryvita  and a cup of miso soup for lunch, and a bit of cold chicken, veggies and a wee bit of rice for supper, in total around 600 calories. The knowledge that you can eat normally the next day makes this bearable. Off tonight to see the film version of Les Misérables which was a good deal less dire than expected. I am no lover of musicals, but hearing good reviews and Lorraine mad for it after he...

I built a house in the middle of the ocean Up to the smoke again, still plodding about like a zombie. Still working on the gargantuan piece about how product x now comes in a larger vial, but am now able to laugh at it a little. Contented myself with a banana and slimline sandwich at lunch. Have been teamed up with a bearded Basque ( not Spanish) freelance art director called Aseir for a brief on something completely different. During the brief by Lucy (who I have worked with several times before) and a chic French Tamil woman called Anne, my stomach was growling really loudly. Watched a filmed focus group. Luckily we were able to fast forward through it as it was on a DVD, which is fortunate as there is nothing in all of marketing more liable to spark self-harming that sitting on the other side of the one-way glass watching people in focus groups being asked the same questions for an entire day. Reading Guillaume Apollinaire on the train. Beginning to really like his work. I re-read ...